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BackgroundPeople in vulnerable positions, e.g. elderly or disabled people, substance abuser or mental health patients have an increased risk of becoming fire victims. To avoid this risk fire safety knowledge and good practices are needed for professionals working in the field.The social and health policy in Finland prioritise assisted living and home care. At the same time the rescue service act stresses that the responsibility of fire safety is on building owners and service providers. Therefore, care professionals are in a novel situation as they are working at clients home and required to take into consideration diverse environment and self-determination of an individual.The aim of this study was to investigate the fire risk and good practices in assisted living and home care.MethodsThe data is from six group interviews done during 2014–2015. Each group included the whole care service chain: the client and one of his/her relatives, care-giver, service provider and planner representatives and fire safety officer. Each group interviewed represented different type of clients and assisted living facilities and service. Interviews took place in various regions in Finland.ResultsEach agent at the service chain had ambition to improve fire safety. However, the knowledge among professionals what requires to be done and what others belonging to the same service chain are doing was inadequate. Some safety tools were used but oftentimes the user did not understand enough about their function. Overall, most were interested in safety information and to improve the safety, but the will to invest on safety was low.ConclusionsThe care service chain has overall good motivation to improve the safety and fire safety of vulnerable people. However requirements of rescue service act did not materialise in assisted living as well as possible. There is apparent need of knowledge and vocational education material.

BackgroundThe rescue act 2011 in Finland stresses that the responsibility of fire safety is on building owners and service providers. The regulation is justifiable, because people in vulnerable positions, for example elderly and disabled, have an increased risk being fire victims.The aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of rescue service act among service providers in residential, institutional and home care facilities and to monitor changes from 2013 to 2015.MethodsOnline surveys on fire hazard assessment and risk management practices were done in 2013 and 2015. Respondents were managers of residential, institutional and home care facilities for the vulnerable people.Information of the facilities was obtained from the nationwide Register of Institutions in Social Welfare and Health Care. The study sample was systematically selected (every other) and it consisted 1605 organisations.ResultsIn 2013 93% of institutional and 95% residential units had written guidelines to ensure fire safety. In 2015 the proportion has decreased to 84 in institutional and 88% in residential units. At home care written guidelines had less than 50%. The accident prevention guidelines had increased in institutional units from 66% to 74% and in residential units from 66% to 77%. At home care the guidelines had 50%. Safety guidelines in general e.g. crime prevention has also decreased and was now less than 50%, at home care only 22%. Patient and residential safety guidelines were increased only at home care from 55% to 60%.ConclusionsThe organisations have increased their preparedness for fire risk with sprinklers. But at the same time they made less written guidelines to prevent to fire. Fire risk assessment and management practices have improved only in home care. In IR-units the situation seems to be weaker than in 2013. The situation is not acceptable and the reasons should be diagnosed.

BackgroundFire safety in institutional care of vulnerable people in Finland is at a good level. However, in assisted living, residential and home care fatal fires still occur. Risk assessment, as well as knowledge of good procedures is therefore needed. Information of fire safety is included in vocational education of social and health care sector but for formal, non-formal and in-formal education material to improve care practices and identify the fire hazards at clients home is lacking.ObjectiveThe aim of the project was to produce evidence-based educational material about fire safety for social and health care professionals. To produce this material, data gathered by National Institute for Health and Welfare, literature and good practices from social and health care and rescue services were utilised. The project took place 2012–2016 and was sponsored by Fire Protection Fund.ResultsFire safety education material for social and health care professionals, students and planners was first published in 2014. The web-based material includes information about background, legislation, fatal fire cases, principles of risk management and learning from accidents. In addition, there are statistic, special knowledge about fire sensitive fabrics, electrical equipment and chemicals and also good practices to improve fire safety. Additional compact educational package for craft teachers is available. The material can be used also in voluntary work and for example for people taking care of their relatives.ConclusionsWeb-based material is freely available at https://www.thl.fi/fi/tutkimus-ja-asiantuntijatyo/hankkeet-ja-ohjelmat/step-hanke/stepin-koulutusaineisto. The material is available in Finnish and Swedish. English version is under consideration as there is urgent need of fire safety training also for increasing number of foreigners and immigrants in Finland.

Aims Environmental factors controlling nitrous oxide (N 2 O) uptake in forest soils are poorly known, and the atmospheric impact of the forest N 2 O sink is not well constrained compared to that of methane (CH 4 ). Methods We compared nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and CH 4 fluxes over two growing seasons in boreal forest soils located in Eastern Finland. Within a spruce forest, we compared plots with long-term nitrogen (N) fertilization history and non-fertilized plots, and additionally pine forest plots without a fertilization history. The flux data was complemented with measurements of climatic conditions and soil physical and chemical characteristics, in order to identify factors affecting N 2 O and CH 4 fluxes. Results Non-fertilized spruce forest soils showed the highest cumulative N 2 O uptake among the sites, whereas the pine forest site displayed low cumulative N 2 O emission. Nitrous oxide uptake was favored by high soil silt and water content. The low temperature seasons, spring and autumn, had the highest N 2 O uptake, likely associated with high soil water content typical for these seasons. In the spruce forest the N 2 O uptake was seasonally decoupled from the CH 4 uptake. Conclusions Applying the Global Warming Potential (GWP) approach, the cooling effect of N 2 O uptake in the spruce forest was on average 35% of that of CH 4 uptake showing that N 2 O uptake should be considered when evaluating the atmospheric impact of boreal forests.

Uterine leiomyomata (UL), also known as uterine fibroids, are the most common neoplasms of the reproductive tract and the primary cause for hysterectomy, leading to considerable impact on women's lives as well as high economic burden. Genetic epidemiologic studies indicate that heritable risk factors contribute to UL pathogenesis. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified five loci associated with UL at genome-wide significance (P < 5 x 10-8). We conducted GWAS meta-analysis in 20,406 cases and 223,918 female controls of white European ancestry, identifying 24 genome-wide significant independent loci; 17 replicated in an unrelated cohort of 15,068 additional cases and 43,587 female controls. Aggregation of discovery and replication studies (35,474 cases and 267,505 female controls) revealed six additional significant loci. Interestingly, four of the 17 loci identified and replicated in these analyses have also been associated with risk for endometriosis, another common gynecologic disorder. These findings increase our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying UL development, and suggest overlapping genetic origins with endometriosis.